HADLEIGH FARM — Sometimes an eighth-place finish is a cracking good result, as the British commentators might say.

Such was the case on a hot Hadleigh Farm mountain course on Sunday, where Geoff Kabush's solid eighth was the best men's Olympic mountain bike result in Canadian history. Kabush, competing in his third Olympics, topped his previous best Games result, ninth in Sydney, in 2000.

In a thrilling race to the wire that kicked up dust, Jaroslav Kulhavy of the Czech Republic edged Swiss rider Nino Schurter by a single second. Italy's Marco Aurelio Fontana took the bronze. The winning time was one hour, 29 minutes, seven seconds.

A massive crowd packed the hills of Hadleigh, although the Brits were disappointed that their lone representative, Liam Killeen, crashed and broke an ankle, unable to finish.

"Now, we're cheering for everybody," said a spectator near the finish line.

Kulhavy, the current world champion, had been playing possum on the World Cup scene this season while he targeted London 2012. After winning five World Cups in 2011, he hadn't won gold in 2012 until winning the race that matters above all.

"This race was important this year, nothing else," Kulhavy said. "I had won everything, world championships, world cups — now I am Olympic champion."

Kabush finished just 1:36 behind Kulhavy, after trying to track lead groups of three and then five riders through seven laps of racing.

"I just wasn't able to get in that lead group," he said. "But I was close, maybe just lacking the little bit of snap to get up there with the leaders."

To appreciate how close Kabush was, he finished two minutes closer to the gold medallist than Catharine Pendrel managed in the women's race the day before. Pendrel, the reigning world champion, finished ninth.

The only other Canadian in the men's race, Max Plaxton, also of Victoria, had an early fall and later abandoned the race just before the 20km mark.

"I'm finishing with a smile on my face," said Kabush, who also finished with a layer of dirt and dust on his face after the 34.08-km ride. The men completed seven loops of a course just under five kilometres long.

"Coming to the Olympics you always dream big. I definitely came here with the goal of a medal, but top eight is a great result," Kabush said. "I'll take some satisfaction out of that and just continue to enjoy riding my bike."

Even though Kabush celebrated his 35 birthday this spring, he plans to compete for at least a couple more years, and he won't rule out getting to the start line in Rio four years from now.

"I've never had more fun racing my bike, and in the last couple of years we've made a lot of developments on the sports science side of things, so that's been really exciting and motivating me. I have another contract with my team (Scott-3 Rox) for a couple more years — as long as I'm having fun, you never know how long I'll be around."

Despite Kabush's inspiring ride in an event dominated by Europeans, Canada had hoped for more from cycling disciplines in road, track, mountain and BMX.

Jacques Landry, the high performance director for Cycling Canada, said the last four years have netted encouraging results at World Cups and world championships, even if the Olympics for cyclists was disappointing, with just one bronze medal.

Cycling has received $6.3 million in funding since the Beijing Olympics, ranking the sport behind only rowing, athletics and swimming in terms of financial support. Programs that demonstrate the greatest ability to win medals draw more funding. For example, the women's team pursuit squad was identified as having podium potential, and received money to ensure they could travel to key competitions and training camps. As it happened, team pursuit delivered the only cycling medal at the London Games, a bronze on the velodrome track.

"We're still in the building phase," Landry said. "When you're always on your hind legs, wondering if you're going to get funding, you can't really build. Funders have to be patient. We have the coaches, we have the system, the program will reap rewards. Rome wasn't built in a day."

He said the benefits go beyond performance.

"This is what we identify with, our Olympic heroes, our Olympic programs in sport," Landry said. "It's tied into our health system as well, either the government spends a lot on our health system or it spends a lot on sport — getting kids on bikes, kids in gymnasiums."

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